


Threats of a Different Kind

by chessinparis



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Erik Has Feelings, Erik Lehnsherr Has a Crush, M/M, Middle Ages, Protective Erik, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:01:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25750255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chessinparis/pseuds/chessinparis
Summary: Lord Erik Lehnsherr of Genosha likes to sneak at night to visit Charles, the leader of the Army of the Free Ones, and his dearest prisoner.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Comments: 11
Kudos: 68





	Threats of a Different Kind

**Author's Note:**

> This is Erik dealing with large amounts of feelings, but in a fantasy setting.
> 
> It is always an absolute delight to read your comments, so please feel free to leave your opinion/criticism, it makes me very very happy. I hope you enjoy it! <3

Erik woke up startled in the middle of the night.

His room looked as peaceful as it always was, nothing seemed out of place. Moonlight bathed walls, bed sheets and his own body, and a soft winter wind howled on the outside.

The room wasn't the source of his restlessness, Erik knew.

He got up and sat on the edge of the bed, for a moment. There was something else. An underlying sense of familiarity, an echoing voice flooding everything around him, silent, insistent and increasingly urgent. As if he was being controled, he got out of bed, lit a candle, wrapped himself in a silk blanket and began moving towards the hall, still half asleep, but somehow perfectly aware of where he wanted to go.

As he walked through the dark halls of the castle, the various metals humming around him became almost unnoticeable, his mind only focused on the sharp pull of one particular piece of metal, and perhaps, on the subtle mental nudge reinforcing it.

He arrived to the first floor without being noticed, and the metallic chant became more and more intense. Finally, he stopped in front of the door of the prison cell, and before opening it, he looked through the small window.

There he was.

Sitting on the floor, laying his back against the wall, wearing metal handcuffs around his wrists. He looked paler, weaker, maybe thinner, too. It was clear that his stay in Genoshan prison was starting to leave marks. But even looking so damaged, there was something about Charles Xavier. Some sort of aura, a bittersweet reminder that he was still Erik's most dangerous threat.

Erik walked into the room. The coldness of the atmosphere and the distinct warmth of Charles’ presence hit him all at once.

"Lord Lehnsherr." the telepath lifted his head up and smiled. He barely moved, Erik realized, he probably didn't have energy left for much movement.

Erik stayed close to the door, guarded, staring down at him, and tried to maintain a dignified attitude. The attitude a Lord of his status should have towards his prisoner and fiercest enemy. "I told you to stop addressing me in that manner." He never kept that facade for a long time. "Father is Lord Lehnsherr. Until he's gone, I am only Lord Erik. Or Erik, for you."

It was odd. Not long ago Erik would have felt proud beyond measure to be compared to his father.

"Have I earned such an immense honor? Well, then," Charles laughed weakly, "Erik." The sole sound of his name in Charles' voice made him shiver. They had personally known each other for less than a month, and yet, no one deserved the right to call him Erik more than Charles.

Erik began moving quietly around the cell. He felt Charles' eyes following him, sensations from their previous encounters still lingering in the air.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked, curious.

Charles nodded. They had made a habit of reaching out for the other when one of them couldn't sleep. "It's a bit colder than yesterday."

A bit colder.

It was more than cold. It was freezing. And it was, of course, intentional. When his army captured Charles, it had been Erik himself who had chosen to confine him there, in the coldest room of the castle, to debilitate him, to have him half-dead, because that way he would be easier to control.

He sat on the floor beside Charles and covered him in his blanket. Charles closed his eyes briefly at the touch of Erik’s hands, and seemed to welcome it. Erik felt suddenly furious. Charles always welcomed him, in every possible way. Why, he couldn't comprehend. It was absurd showing so vulnerable to his captor. It meant weakness, and Erik had been taught to punish weakness.

They didn't say anything for a while. Not out loud. But their silences were electrifying, as they held everything they preferred to be left unsaid.

"They're still coming, you know that, right?" Charles smiled, but his voice sounded a bit off. "I can sense them," he said, signaling his right temple.

He projected an image, Charles’ army making its way towards the lands of Genosha. It was one of those little reminders of who they both were, one of those moments of realization that brought them violently back into reality. They always hurt, but by now, for Erik, they were almost unbearable. "They won't stop because I'm not there. Don't think me that important, my dear."

Erik didn't reply.

He remembered the first time he saw Charles. He had heard of him before; the telepath that had assembled a mutant army and started the Rebellion of the Free Ones, the one that intended to end the Lehnsherr family's reign over Genosha. And Erik always thought of him as an enemy that he - probably the wealthiest and most powerful Lord in the East - could easily get rid of. But then his soldiers brought this man into the castle, wounded, tied at his hands and feet, and yet looking so determined, and Erik felt immediately drawn to him.

Charles was a natural leader, and an intelligent one, someone that genuinely helped others be the best version of themselves, Erik had soon understood that about him. But what confused and fascinated Erik was that Charles had helped _him_. He had showed him that his mutation wasn't a violent weapon to keep his subjects loyal, that he wasn't a useful monster, as his father always told him. Charles had seen in him the gift to create beauty.

Erik had interpreted that as a sign of Charles's naivety, but he couldn't help thinking that for the first time, maybe since his dear mother's death, he had felt accepted, he had felt loved. And as their mutual attraction grew stronger, to the point of becoming lovers, so did the awareness that Charles was to be feared, because he had been able to disarm Erik in the most gentle of ways.

"I think you're much more important than you know, Charles." Erik murmured in Charles ear.

The telepath turned his face towards him, and Erik had to curse at the Ancient Gods for making such a beautiful creature. He moved his hand up to Charles' cheek and put his other arm around his waist, hoping that maybe that way he could protect him. Without missing a beat Charles moved a few inches closer and pressed his lips over Erik's. He was always a bit impatient, Erik thought.

They kissed slowly, and Erik savored every little detail of Charles' mouth, so familiar to his own by now. Then, they split apart still keeping each other as close as they could, and locked eyes.

"I will fight by their side, Erik," Charles said, in a whisper.

"And my father's soldiers will be prepared to face your attack." Erik lowered his voice too, and left a kiss on Charles' neck, trying to end that conversation.

"Your father is on his deathbed," reluctantly, Charles moved Erik a bit backwards, so they were nose to nose again. " _You_ command that army. It is _you_ who I will fight against."

"Then you will have to kill _me._ " Erik wanted, _needed_ Charles to agree to that. To give up on him.

"Not if I can help it."

_How could he still...?_

That was enough.

Erik felt suddenly overwhelmed and instinctively, he moved away from Charles. "I better go before dawn, right?"

Charles seemed suddenly confused, and to Erik's surprise, hurt too, but he nodded. Erik never stayed until dawn, after all.

Before standing up, Erik took a couple of seconds to simply look at him, and as he was still close enough, he put his hand on Charles', still cold as ice.

"..." Erik stopped himself, terrified.

No.

Not that. Not now. Not Charles. He could afford offering Charles sex, intimacy, and it was, in fact, being delightful to do so, but he could never afford _that_. Erik couldn't let Charles have absolute control over him. Or, at least he couldn't let him know that he already had it.

It would be an act of surrender, letting him know that he was desperately in love with him.

He got up and turned around as quickly as he could. He managed to repress what he had wanted to say, but the emotion attached to those words was excruciatingly clear, and he'd rather not to know whether or not Charles had felt it. So without waiting for a reaction he proceeded to open the door.

_Stay._

Charles' voice echoed in Erik's mind. Though it was not only Charles', it was his own voice too. Neither of them moved.

That word still resonated when Erik turned around and slowly walked towards Charles, not daring to look him in the eye. He put out the candle and sat down again, and felt Charles moving closer and curling up until they were both quite poorly covered by the same blanket. At the warm caress of Charles' mind and the light touch of locks of hair on his face, Erik closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, Charles was still asleep, covered by morning sunlight.


End file.
